Thursday, June 14, 2007

The city of Calgary is still 18 months or more away from having curb side recycling in place. Meanwhile, the recycling depots that currently exist aren't keeping up. There have been reports of overflowing bins at many neighbourhood depots with the extra material being left on the ground because the city can't keep up. Some areas are getting ticked off. Meanwhile, the city is now exploring garbage bag limits, capping the number of bags you can put out for collection at 2. You would have to pay for tags to put out more than 2. Ric McIver goes so far as to suggest that this is a plan that should be put into action sooner rather than later.

Message to Ric and others who share your opinion: How about you wait until Calgarians actually have a working recycle infrastructure in place? Because under the current system, those that bring their recyclables to the local depot are often greeted with full bins, and those who are without vehicles cannot be expected to cart their recyclables off to the depot and pare their garbage down to the 2 bag limit, yet it's these folks who would be penalized the hardest.

The fact is that even once curbside recycling is implemented, the city has admitted that it cannot service most condos and apartment complexes (although I don't understand why), so these residents will still be at the mercy of the local depot. A bag limit is a good idea in principle, but until Calgarians have a way to reduce their garbage in a way that offers equal access to everyone, it will not be fair. And we haven't even discussed the fact that in many jurisdictions where bag limits were imposed, it resulted in cheaters dumping their extra garbage on other peoples' property to avoid paying the tag fees.

1 comment:

"...the city has admitted that it cannot service most condos and apartment complexes" This is the case where I live. The county is spending big bucks to find out why people don't recycle. Renters are not provided with recycle bins and the county cannot answer why.